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Monday, November 23, 2015

Harbingers of Hate

UN High Commission for Refugees

DDGD November 22, 2015

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we believe in the necessity of a rational and wholehearted commitment to fearmongering
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The Delirica

Conspiracy
Making: This
short article, which dates back to May 25, 2015, continues to come up again
and again on social media, and although many people seem to take it as true,
since it is based on an unclassified Pentagon document, it actually offers an
insight into how conspiracy theories are weaved.

This is what the article claims
to reveal: “Confirmed Secret Pentagon Report Reveals US “Created” ISIS As A
“Tool” in a Proxy War Against Assad.” Below is an excerpt from the DIA
report meant to back this claim:

“… there is the
possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist Principality in
eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting
powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is
considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).”

But this is the full quote taken
directly from the unclassified document:

Can you spot the difference? The
document speaks of a hypotheticalscenario that could develop
should the situation in Syria “unravels,” that is, should the state fail. The
report, then, points to sponsors of the opposition as favoring this development
as part of their effort to isolate Assad. There is no American plan here or a
course being advocated, and the whole scenario is premised on having the Obama
Administration continuing to do nothing.

Earlier in the report, the role
of Iran, China and Russia in supporting the regime is also acknowledged. The
report can be read here,
there are many redacted sections.

*

Un-American & Un-Islamic: Slavery,
racism and intolerance all have history in America. Yet, when we talk about
oppression, injustice and censorship, we describe them as being Un-American.
The reason for this apparent contradiction is simple: a nation prefers to define
itself by the best it has to offer, even as it continues to combat its worst
tendencies. The same goes for Islam. Slavery, intolerance, misogyny, homophobia
are all part of Islamic history and some of their manifestations issues lingers
to date to varying degrees. Still, Muslims define themselves by the best that
their religion has to offer, including tolerance, conviviality, love of peace
and justice, the “live and let live” spirit, all of which are values that can
be found in the Quran. Fringe groups both in the U.S. and Muslim-majority
countries exploit and revel in the negative aspects of their culture, with hate
groups hiding under the protection of the First Amendment, and terrorist groups
like Daesh justifying their acts under the pretext of return to authenticity,”
but both sets of groups are denounced by the overwhelming majority as Un-American
and Un-Islamic. No amount of legal or theological trickery can blind decent people as
to the basic immorality involved in the speech and acts that reflect hate and
nihilism.

But we have to note here that both epithets, Un-American and
Un-Islamic, often reflect an ethical and moral judgement not a legal one. We
cannot punish someone for being Un-American or Un-Islamic, we can punish
specific crimes. Generally speaking, it’s Un-American to be intolerant, once
again, we are referring to the aspirational nature of the statement here, not
the historical reality affiliated with it, but unless the intolerant person decide
to assault his neighbor for being different, then, no crime has been committed,
and no punishment can be meted out by law. But society, in this case the
neighborhood, can choose to shun the intolerant person. In this sense, Muslims shouldn’t
wait for someone to commit an overt act of intolerance to be shunned, and for
his behavior to be considered Un-Islamic. Most Muslims, in fact, don’t
associate with people who hold radical views: extremists make them feel
uncomfortable, just Christian extremists make most other practicing Christians uncomfortable.

*

The same people who advocated and now are busy defending and
justifying the Iran deal are now focusing their energies as well on attacking
Saudi Arabia, both on its dismal human rights record and its support for
terrorism. The problem with stance, however, is that these very issues still apply
to Iran who in addition to supporting Shia death squads in Iraq, Syria and
Yemen, is also supporting the Assad regime of Syria, the Houthis of Yemen, Hamas
and its affiliates in the Gaza Strip and the Territories, and even Daesh and
Al-Qaeda. Iran is also still cracking down on dissenters, and continues to
execute political prisoners after sham judicial processes. But none of this
matter it seems. Iran is not simply giving a pass on all of these issues, its behavior
has also been rewarded with an accord that, in practice, shields it from international
and regional pressures, and preserve its core nuclear capabilities and knowhow.
Only Saudi is being attacked. This lack of consistency by smart and
knowledgeable people bespeaks of an ideological frame of mind and an
ideological agenda, and undermines the issue of human rights and democracy, and
the fight against terrorism. This attitude will not bring peace and
stability to the region, and will shield America from repercussions. On the
contrary, it is a way of stoking the fire, and guaranteeing further mayhem.

*

Obama
Says Russia Faces Strategic Choice as Assad Can't Stay. “It is not
conceivable that Mr. Assad can regain legitimacy in a country in which a large
majority of that country despises Assad, and will not stop fighting so long as
he’s in power,” Obama said Sunday at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur. There
is an increasing awareness on Putin’s part that the extremist group is a much
bigger threat to Russia than losing an embattled ally in Assad or anything else
in the region, Obama said. The downing of a Russian passenger jet last month
drove that point home to Putin, he said. President Obama continues to
make statements and predictions which he is clearly unwilling to back with
actions. He believes fate will act on his behalf. In the last five years, fate never did, and
the situation in Syria and elsewhere worsened. It’s not clear what sort of
Archangel Mr. Obama is listening to, but he is either the Fallen One, or
something is being lost in translation.

And when the Minister says “few,” he means
less than 1 in a hundred thousand. After all, Europe received more than 800,000
refugees so far in 2015 (see picture at the beginning of the post), and only
one case is known to have come masquerading as a Syrian refugee. Yet, somehow,
this doesn’t matter, for populist
politicians that’s all it takes to demonize entire communities all over
the world.

Based purely upon these
figures, you might think that the economies of these countries would be sagging
under the burden, but they aren’t. According to a new
reportfrom the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-Operation
and Development, the Turkish economy will expand by three per cent this year
and by four per cent next year. Lebanon’s economy is also growing, at a rate of
about two per cent this year, which will expand to more than three per cent
next year, the World Bank reckons. Despite an
influx of refugees that now amounts to more than ten per cent of its
population, Jordan, too, is bearing up. Its gross domestic product will rise by
about three per cent this year, the International Monetary Fund says… If the United
States were to take in more Syrian refugees, the numbers would be tiny compared
to what is happening in the Middle East and Europe. At the top end of the
range, Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley have called for sixty-five thousand
migrants to be admitted over the next five years. As O’Malley pointed out during
last week’s Democratic debate, “Accommodating sixty-five thousand refugees
in our country . . . of three hundred and twenty million is akin to making room
for six and a half more people in a baseball stadium with thirty-two thousand.”

Meanwhile, Russia, as Turkey
before her, is using refugees as a way to pressure Europe. A
(Very) Cold War on the Russia-Norway Border“The number of Syrians taking an unlikely route into
Europe through the Arctic Circle has expanded from a handful to hundreds. And
Oslo thinks Moscow is responsible.”

“Most of the children the president
met with are Rohingya,
a Muslim ethnic group. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled
Myanmar to escape persecution by the country's Buddhist majority, with many
ending up in Malaysia, where Obama was attending a regional economic summit.”

For his part, Hisham Melhem, the
famous Arab pundit Hisham Melhem rues the fact that “Compassionate and
benevolent America was nowhere to be found in that cold and unwelcoming
universe most elected Republicans and an increasing number of Democrats
inhabit.”

Things are getting tough outside
the U.S. as well. This video shows how Greek Coast Guard tried on several
occasion to sink refugee boats:

UmReeka: Muslim
Americans responded in a variety of ways to Republican presidential candidate,
Donald Trump, call for establishing a database for registering Muslims in the
country. This
one by Wajahat Ali, a national correspondent for Al Jazeera America, an
award-winning playwright, an attorney and a former consultant for the State
Department, is particularly noteworthy for its biting satire:

We
could “Hunger Games” this situation and host a “Last Moderate Muslim
Standing” — an annual competition where 50 moderate Muslims are chosen, one
from each state, to fight to the death until only one remains.

Armed
protesters gather outside Islamic Center of Irving. Because the only way we
can feel safe is by reigning holy terror on those doing absolutely nothing to
terrorize us, except being there, and being so Goddamn different and all,
especially those who don’t look so different and sound quite reasonable, and
even American and all. These are the more dangerous ones.

But some experts took to modern
history to show that American Muslims have for long played an integral albeit
less publicized role I American history, including fighting on its behalf.
Muslims also fought in support of Western alliances on numerous occasions,
including WWII: There
are far more Muslims ready to fight for the West than against it. “Tens of thousands
of Muslims serve in the U.S. military and in the military forces of countries
across Europe. And they always have.” Muslims also fought for both sides
of the American Civil War, and hundreds of thousands of Muslims fought for
Allied forces in WWII, only a small number fought for the Germans in WWII. As
an example of those thousands of Muslims who currently serve in the U.S.
military we have this marine: Muslim
marine burns Donald Trump with tweet over ID card comments, who destroyed
Trump in one tweet, if only Trump had a sense of shame.

In Hamtramck, Mich., long a home to Polish Catholic immigrants, the shift in everyday life is about to have its first effect on politics: It now has a majority-Muslim city council. A Muslim woman looks at the goodies on display at New Palace Bakery in Hamtramck, Mich. Thousands of Muslims have arrived in the past decade. Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post.

But, it’s probably the small town
of Hamtramck, Michigan, with its population of 22,000 and which constitutes the
only town in the U.S. where Muslims are a majority, and who have recently come
to form the majority in the town’s council, that vividly
underscores the possibility of conviviality between Muslims and non-Muslims.
Despite misapprehensions on part of the Catholic Polish population who used to
make the majority, rule of law and commitment to diversity continue to be
observed.

“The figure supplied by the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is more than double the overall toll it
gave in its last report on the Russian campaign three weeks ago… It said 381 IS
fighters had been killed, along with 547 militants from Al-Qaeda affiliate
Al-Nusra Front and other rebel forces. The strikes also killed 403 civilians,
including 97 children, according to the monitor.”

In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2015 photo released by the Tasnim News Agency, members of the Basij, the paramilitary unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, gather around a replica of Jerusalem's gold-topped Dome of the Rock mosque as one of them waves an Iranian flag from on top of the dome during a military exercise. Thousands of paramilitary forces from Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard have held a war game simulating the capture of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque from Israeli control, state media reported Saturday. (AP Photo/Tasnim News Agency, Mahmoud Hosseini)

In a common
mistake, the Guard set up a replica of the gold-topped Dome of the Rock mosque
instead of the nearby gray-domed Al-Aqsa mosque. Official photos showed one of
the troops going to the top of the dome and waving an Iranian flag and a red
flag, a symbol of martyrdom.

It seems they’ve masturbating to the wrong picture. Does anyone know why they are fighting anymore?

Saudocalypse:Saudi
Arabia And Russia Clash Over Syria – Analysis. Oh yes, Saudi clashes with
Russia, and Iran, in Yemen and Syria. They all have vendettas against each
other, and now they are giving themselves more reasons to hate and suspect and
fight each other, but always through proxies, always at the expense of other
people’s lives.

Without explicitly naming Russia,
it said the General Assembly "strongly condemns all attacks against the
Syrian moderate opposition and calls for their immediate cessation, given that
such attacks benefit so-called ISIL (Daesh) and other terrorist groups, such as
al Nusra Front." "ISIL" and "Daesh" are names for
Islamic State… The resolution also condemned the presence in Syria of "all
foreign terrorist fighters ... and foreign forces fighting on behalf of the
Syrian regime, particularly the al Quds Brigades, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (of Iran) and militia groups, such as Hezbollah."

The condemnation is deserved, but Saudi is not blameless. But
Saudi collapse won’t solve the problem. If all three powers collapsed, now that
might be something to look forward to: a well-deserved, well-earned mayhem for
all.

In the meantime, and back in the real world, Saudi
to host mid-December conference to unite Syria opposition: TV. But I doubt the
Russians, Iranians, the American and he Europeans will let Saudi manipulate
this game: each side wants its useful idiots and opportunists to take part, and
somehow each side will find ways to get its way. This might be as thorny a
problem as the issue of Assad’s departure, but it receives little attention these
days. Perhaps it’s for the best.

North
of Holy:Syria’s
only hope of peace is if Assad is removed“If Russia abandons its support for
the regime, it will find a political opposition ready to defeat Isis and create
a democratic Syria.” What makes this article unique is that its authors
are Khaled Khoja, Mouaz al-Khatib, Ahmad al-Assi Jarba and Hadi al-Bahra, who
are respectively, the current and the three former presidents of the National
Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces.

“Let us be
clear: Assad never has been, nor will ever be, an alternative to Isis. He will
never bring peace toSyria,
nor will he ever be capable of taking on extremists. There is no capacity on
the regime’s side to regain control and restore stability to the country.
Moderate forces of the opposition are the only forces that have proved capable
of combating Isis and winning back territory, as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) did
in 2013. But, thanks to the failure of our western partners, Syria’s moderates
are deeply under-resourced. Despite our repeated appeals, we never received the
support needed from our friends.”

“To defend
ourselves from this heresy, Muslims could start with this easy admission:
While religion can help improve us, it can also turn into a source of hubris,
pride and even oppression. It's not just obvious from my own experience and
observation, but it's right there in the Muslim scripture.”

The above conclusion reached by
Mr. Moghul is exactly why I hate attacking Daesh on the basis of what
constitutes “real Islam.” Because such attempts always leads to an assault on
“the heretics.” But people have the right to be heretics. Islam itself, and so
many other belief-systems flourishing today began as heresies. Of course, I am not suggesting that Mr.
Moghul himself intends to declare war on all heresies, indeed, his intentions
are quite clear and positive. But his approach is no different than what all
groups which consider themselves Islamic, including Daesh, are doing: they all
go back to the scripture to find justifications for their actions, and to
condemn other groups as heretical; and they all succeed, including Daesh. Scriptures
are rife with enough contradictions and vagueness that everyone can find the
answers that they are looking for there.

Scripture is not the answer, even
for the faithful. Reason is. Even scripture often appeals to reason in order to
justify itself (only to reject it and its advocates when they reach conclusions
other than what it is preached). Such cynicism notwithstanding, if the faithful
doesn’t have it in him or her to conclude on the basis of his own thinking and feeling
about such things as terrorism, targeting of civilians, and collective judgment
and punishment, and on holding children accountable for the crimes of their
fathers and siblings, then, recourse to scripture is often meaningless. The faithful
will simply look for those texts that will support their already reached
conclusions. The ability to call something Un-Islamic on moral ground has to
happen in the face of any historic precedent for it in the life of the prophets
or the companions. Since the detailed context of any historical precedents
cannot be fully ascertained and understood after so many centuries, it’s the
general principle should apply. And it is this agreement on general principle
that led to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by a
group as diverse as the panel that was put it together.

Fade to Black: Filmmaker
Amer Albarzawi was living in Raqqa, Syria, two years ago as it became the
stronghold of the Islamic State. He uses stop-motion technique to create a 1
minute on movie that captures the essence of the transition from a period of
brief freedom enjoyed when people took control of their own city, until the
moment IS/Daesh took over. https://youtu.be/WIrSDKcO-4M

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